The local Girl Scouts council paid for a sign-language interpreter to attend Megan's Girl Scout meetings, a camping trip and other outings.

But a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday on the 12-year-old's behalf alleged that the Girl Scouts abruptly disbanded Megan's Schaumburg troop early this year in retaliation for her mother's efforts to keep the 100-year-old organization paying for the interpreter.

....Megan, who has been deaf since birth, joined the Girl Scouts in kindergarten, her mother said. At the time, her mother requested that an interpreter be present at Scouting activities, and the Girl Scouts agreed to that, she said.

But in the fall of 2011, the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana told Runnion that the "council does not pay for these services," the lawsuit alleged. Runnion made another request in October for her daughter to have an interpreter for a rock climbing event the next month.

But the local council complied only after Equip for Equality, a Chicago-based advocacy group for people with physical or mental disabilities, and the National Association for the Deaf sent a letter requesting an interpreter for the event, according to the lawsuit.

....Runnion said she later learned from the Girl Scouts that the group would pay only a maximum of $50 a month for support services for girls with special needs. Megan's family would have to pick up the added expense.

"People aren't supposed to pay for their accommodations," said Barry Taylor, legal director for Equip for Equality and one of the lawyers representing the Runnion family.

....But Runnion said her family of six relies on her husband's income as an inventory purchaser and can't afford the expense of an interpreter for her daughter....

And what, pray tell, prevented the girl's parents from becoming interpreters for this girl during the last 12 years of her life? It appears the dad is the one who works and provides income, so the mom must be a stay-at-home. Does she use an interpreter to communicate with her own daughter? I realize she has six kids, but why does someone else have to pay for her to attend a voluntary thing?

I know reasonable accommodation applies to the workplace, not sure about this case, but that doesn't mean that a company has to spend unreasonable amounts of money to accommodate you. If your accommodation costs more than you're worth, it ain't gonna fly.

5
posted on 08/02/2012 11:49:06 AM PDT
by IYAS9YAS
(Rose, there's a Messerschmitt in the kitchen. Clean it up, will ya?)

Probably because they have 6 kids.. and she cant be at every event for one of them.

It's a family of 6 -- so most likely 4 children. If the family can't attend every event, then the girl misses some. Perhaps they should save and pay to have an interpreter attend those outings they don't want her to miss, ones someone in the family can't attend. No one made her enroll her daughter in scouts.

The DeafCommunity is by in large VERY Liberal and VERY entitled.

A quick web search on Gallaudet University will provide plenty of confirmation on that for those that don't believe you.

I still don't understand why the GSA ever started providing a deaf interpreter for the girl. I don't think they meet the "public accomodation" requirement/definition. The GSA seems to have dug its own ditch in this matter.

17
posted on 08/02/2012 12:33:19 PM PDT
by T-Bird45
(It feels like the seventies, and it shouldn't.)

We happen to have a good number of deaf people in our poker league. One of them is married to an interpreter. I’m going to show her this article to see what she thinks of the entitlement mentality this lady has in regards to her daughter.

My sons high school has a large deaf group of students as it is one of the 4 schools in the district that provide for deaf students.

So, there are a few deaf boys on the football team.

Every morning a fleet of buses arrive with the deaf students to attend class - at the end of school the buses take them back I assume to a stop or set of stops as they come from other school districts.

So, with football practice keeping them after class, at the end of practice, a fleet of taxi’s are there to give those players a ride home all paid for by us.

BTW, those without their own cars have to have their parents come and get them. No taxi’s for you!

22
posted on 08/02/2012 12:48:18 PM PDT
by edcoil
(It is not over until I win.)

My deaf cousin actually got WORSE at reading lips while spending 4 years at Gallaudet. Her friends were absolutely horrible at it and could only sign. My cousin said the community was so insular that it was just a bunch of deaf people signing to each other with not much attempt to integrate with the hearing world.

24
posted on 08/02/2012 12:58:07 PM PDT
by Opinionated Blowhard
("When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.")

More liberal whining. It doesn’t surprise me at all they expect free child care, and that is what this amounts to. The Girl Scouts should pay for their liberal largess.

My Eagle Scout son had special needs from the time he was 13. Even before this my husband and I took care of his needs ourselves. One of us attended every meeting, every camping trip and summer camp from the time he was a cub scout.

PATHETIC! This “mother” (more like a gold-digging moron!) should have gotten her behind out there and translated for HER daughter! If she cared so much she should have been there for her child! Instead, sue, sue, sue, and make other people pay!

....But Runnion said her family of six relies on her husband's income as an inventory purchaser and can't afford the expense of an interpreter for her daughter....

Then you get your butt to the events and act as the interpreter. Girls Scouts (the girls, not the organization) are about providing service, not demanding it. The leaders and assistants are volunteers, not your paid servants.

I have not see that - of the players none are totally deaf either - range from 20% to 70%. All have hearing aids and the team has a translator on the field and at every practice but they never flash signs on the field I have noticed just if the coach wants to talk to them on the sideline do they get involved.

35
posted on 08/02/2012 3:28:28 PM PDT
by edcoil
(It is not over until I win.)

I don't think they meet the "public accomodation" requirement/definition.

That's how the Boy Scouts escaped having to admit homosexuals, they're not a "public accommodation." It's anyone's guess how the quirky courts will rule on something like this, however. The ADA has seen incredible expansion and twisting under judicial rule since Bush41 signed it into law.

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